Column: _{My photography}

Konstantine Kryukov

an actor

Konstantine, when and how did you take up photography? What kind of camera do you take photos with?

The first camera I took in my hands was bought by my father. It was a heavy film camera “Minolta Dynax” into which special small cards for different shooting modes should be inserted.  Nowadays I use the “Sony-Alfa” digital camera. I became seriously keen on photography in Jerusalem. I would like to keep the memories and impressions of that place for the rest of my life so the first few days of staying there I was looking at the city only through the viewfinder of my camera.

What do you feel when you look at your own photographs?   

Sometimes they call up strange associations. In Israel I rubbed myself with a sun block lotion and a drop of it fell on the marble table. When I came back I saw that ants swarmed all over that drop and were eating it. Beside there was a heap of dead ants. And for me it was the living picture of greed. I had always thought that animals had the freedom of choice but it turned out that they are guided by instincts. 

What do you prefer to take photographs of?

I never take photographs of myself when traveling. This is me and the Eiffel tower; this is me and the pyramids. If you want to look at yourself, go and look in the mirror. I like to take photographs of people most of all, to scrutinize their life.

Do you prefer to take a posed photograph or to try to catch a moment? 

I think it is much more interesting to catch a moment. You can spend much time arranging the composition of the photograph, thinking about what and where will de depicted only when taking photos of architecture. As for people, it is better to take photos of them when they are natural and live their own lives. I’ve got some kind of a quirk because I am an actor and have to pose for photographers so often that I’d prefer to believe in what I see.

 Where do you prefer to travel in order to come into some special mood?

I like Europe very much. I grew up there. I’ve been to very funny places there. For example, there’s a city from Vienna named Sherding  – it is the town which is flooded by the river every two or three years. I was staying at a hotel with the wall full of marks showing what level water had reached. I asked the hotel keeper:

"-Why do you live here? Close down the city and leave it.

-Oh, but everything is so convenient here: we have boats, and the lower floors are strengthened. Why should we leave?"

I like Czech Republic very much, especially Karlovy Vary, I often go there.

Karlovy Vary? It is so boring, isn’t it?

Karlovy Vary is the perfect place to stay alone. The people living there are extremely conservative. Everybody is asleep at 10 in the evening. It is almost impossible to make the acquaintance of anyone because no one is going to talk to you. This is the place where you get hundred-per-cent solitude while staying in the society. It is a very interesting city in this regard.

Do you take photos in Moscow?

I do when I feel like it and have the possibility to carry my camera. I have a dream – to spend a whole Friday night visiting one night club or restaurant after another, taking photos of night life. 

 Why do you prefer night? Is there anything special in it?  

At night the colors are different, you’ve got high contrast of the photographs – I like contrast very much. It is of special interest to take photos of everything that associated with exposure and light movement at night. I prefer to work, paint and write at night, when my telephone doesn’t ring and the whole world is asleep.

Do you like to be taken photos of?

I don’t like to be taken photos of, for example, without my permission. However, an actor should accept is as a part of the profession.  There are many superstitious people who don’t want their photos get into a stranger’s hands. As for Tokyo, one may take photos of both children and adults freely. 

I do not let other people take photos of my 3.5-month-old daughter, Julia. When she grows up, she will decide whether she likes it or not. I take photos or make movies of her myself. If my father had such possibilities when I was 3 months old, I could see myself making my first steps.

So you like to take photographs of your daughter, night life, people…what else?

I like macro very much, especially when it is impossible to understand what is on the picture. You think it is a fence but it turns out to be three matches.

 Konstantine, could you describe the interior of you home?

There are icons and replicas of my favorite paintings. As for our contemporaries, I have got only one very peculiar artist Katya Medvedeva – Russian primitive art.   The picture is named “Dove The Holy Spirit ”. She is very unsophisticated, this old woman living in the country and painting in an extremely simple way, like children do. I and my wife are building a house and there will be Klimt hanging on the walls in my study. Not a genuine one, of course, because I haven’t got 128 million roubles but a very good replica - 100х50. The painting is named “Primavesia“ and is hanging in the “Metripolitan” museum. Recently I’ve been to New York and spent about 15 minutes standing in front of it. Nowadays Klimt is a more successful bestseller than Picasso whose works I don’t like. Besides, I prefer Monet, Van Gogh, Dali. I don’t like conceptualism. I prefer obvious – objective art. 

What In your opinion does photography have to bring into the interior?

I think that one should get not just beauty but some experience from photographs and paintings. There is a diptych by Newton I like very much. There is a woman holding her hands on her breast on the one picture and the woman’s legs and a street on the other one. I suppose I will hang these two pictures in two different rooms.

So you will unite the whole space of your home with the common theme?

Yes. If the first thing you see is the photograph of legs and pavement, it intrigues. This is the game element. I have left much space in the room specially for a huge picture. It will be hanged on the wall which stretches up to the ceiling from the first floor to the second floor. There will be large book shelves standing at the study. At the moment my books are at my friends’ homes but I’d like to get back all the books I like at last.  I’ve got many works of European classical authors – complete works by Borges and by Cortazar, and all Latin American mystics. I like Dostoevsky, Gogol’, Blok, Tolstoy. 

Besides, there will be many orchids in my house. I consider them to be the most sexual flowers in the world. They are very womanlike; they embody a woman’s danger for a man.

What do you think is the difference between the interior of a habitable room and the interior of a restaurant, for example?

As a rule, photographs for a restaurant are chosen according to a theme – at the Vertinsky the theme is China, at the Genatsvale it is the Old Tiflis. Paintings used in the interior of a restaurant are a means of decoration and not considered a work of art. At home pictures shouldn’t be decorative. This is not a table, not a moulding.  Why should we turn photographs into tiles? 

Interview by Maria Shaburova

Specially for Shop Decorative and fine art photography Foto[O2]

No part text or photographs may be used without the prior written permission of the foto[O2 shop management or the reference to the  www.fotoo2.ru website.

Konstantine Kryukov kindly let us use his onw photographs for the interview publication.